Aidan's Sword
by Syshe
Summary: When her family is killed by raiders, Anevay stops talking. She runs, taking her father's sword with her. She finds herself traveling along with a group of knights seeking the raiders, and she discovers that the sword has strange magic that only she can c


This is only my second fic, so be nice in your reviews. I wrote it quick today, and I don't know how good it will turn out, but if you like it, I'll continue. Read & Revieew!  
  
Disclaimer: I own Anevay (I like names that start with "A"!) and the plot, her family, and maybe the village in future chapters, but the country and future characters are owned by Tamora Pierce.  
  
  
  
"Run!" Anevay's mother gasped. "Hide!" Her eyes wide with fear, she pushed her daughter so hard that Anevay fell to her hands and knees.  
  
"Momma!" she cried. Her mother turned to run, but she grabbed a handful of her skirts and hung on. "Don't go! Don't leave me."  
  
The woman tugged at her skirts, a thin coat of sweat forming on her forehead. "Let go, Anie!" she commanded. "Let go!" She glanced at the horizon, where there were already screams and shouting, and several fires burning on the thatched roofs of the village huts. When Anevay clung on still, she pried the girl's hands from the cloth. "Let-go!"  
  
"No!" she wailed. "I can't." Anevay started to cry, the sobs coming out as hoarse chokes. She got on her knees, and tried to pull her mother down to her.  
  
"Stop this foolishness, girl! Do as I say!" Another frightened glance in the direction of the village. "Girl, do you want to get us killed?"  
  
Sobbing, Anevay shook her head. "Momma.momma."  
  
"Then get up! Get up! Now!" Her mother was starting to panic. The screams were closer now, and they could smell the thick odor of smoke. Her chestnut hair was soaked in sweat, and it was falling out from its normally tight bun at the top of her head.  
  
"Momma-"  
  
"Anie!" Her words came out sharp, but the slap she laid on Anevay's face sharper. "Now is not the time to fall to pieces! You get up, now, you hear me?"  
  
Anevay's light eyes met her mother's dark ones, hurt yet understanding. She scrambled to her feet as her mother helped her up.  
  
"Now go!" directed her mother. "Go now, before they find you! Go-"  
  
Her words were cut off from behind. There was a shifting noise, and the woman fell to the ground, leaving Anie only to stare in terror, as the man who had run her mother through stepped back, examining the blood on his sword. He ran a finger over the wetness, which in the dusk looked black. The girl was rooted to the spot. She couldn't move, she just couldn't. She wet herself, but barely noticed. The man sniffed his finger, and then put it in his mouth. He looked up slowly at the trembling girl before him, grinning evilly.  
  
"It's too bad ye had to see yer old woman die," he spat at her, his voice deep and husky, slightly slurred from drink. "But don't ye worry yer purdy 'ead-yer're soon t'join 'er."  
  
He raised his blood-stained sword, ready to bring it down on Anevay, when-  
  
There was a roar, and the raider was pushed to the ground. The young girl fell back, landing hard on her tailbone. Her wrist twisted painfully as she caught herself, and she shrieked in pain. She looked up in time to see the murderer raise his sword-not in attack, but in defense. Somebody was fighting him.  
  
The clang of metal made Anevay's ears ring, and she started to crawl backwards, still facing the two men. She recognized the new one as her father. He fought with a fierceness she had never seen in him before, which made her even more frightened. As he laid a thin cut on the enemy's shoulder, he shouted to Anevay, "Run! Go hide! You mustn't"-he blocked a strike from the raider with a grunt-"be caught!"  
  
Anevay got to her feet as quick as she could, shaking violently, and she knew she was going to be sick. Half running, half tripping she made her way to the edge of the forest, and then vomited down her front. The fight was fading away, but she continued to fly into the forest, not caring that she had on no shoes, or that the branches scratching at her face made a cut above her eye, or that her clothes were getting muddy from her falling all the time.  
  
When she could hear no sounds except the crickets and her own wheezing breaths, she stopped, and stumbled. She fell hard on her shoulder, and her head struck a tree root hard. Everything went black.  
  
  
  
So, how'd ya like it? Tell me what you think when you REVIEW! 


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